Tail' of a Lonely Boy
by Cokopoof
Summary: A young boy struggles to overcome his inner demons.
*Play sad Naruto music* _I'm just so alone… why is it that no one likes me? I feel like some sort of disease the way they all treat me. At least I have Iruka-sensei._

After thinking this, Naruto wanders across the open plain outside the village. The sun is hanging low in the horizon shedding several shades of orange and purple, and darkening the sky as is falls out of view. Naruto stops next to a tall oak tree and watches as twilight becomes night and the million starred ebony sky shines with the crescent moon. Naruto can barely appreciate the beauty. The thick canopy of trees cast his boy's figure in complete darkness as he walks in the forest. He follows the path back to the village and leaves his expression of bitterness behind. He has already finished painting the smile on when he walks through the village entrance.

"Naruto! You know the rules, you have to be back by sunset!" exclaims the guard. Naruto feels a pang of annoyance but simply sticks his tongue out and pulls his cheeks at the guard, then pulls his orange pants down to moon him before lithely jumping to the roof and running away. "Get back here you damn monster brat!" Naruto pretended not to have heard as he flew through his window.

"Well I'm beat" he says to his empty loft. He falls onto his futon and hugs his body pillow with a poorly drawn picture of Sakura on it. "Mmm, Sakura…I love you" After whispering this confession he drifts quickly into his usual nightmare. A Strong powerful, resonating voice speaks but he can't understand the words. Fear grips him and strangles him while the voice speaks, he feels cold and alone but the voice speaks faster and then he fills with a longing for destruction. A searing metal melting fire overtakes the coldness and he feels the heaviness of loneliness turn to ash in that angry flame. He sees the village from a bird's eye view as he descends upon it with total annihilation, each of those cold expression aimed at him burst into flame and die. Iruka-sensei's face appears but he looks at Naruto with pity as he is also destroyed and then it happens again with Sakura. Naruto no longer wants to destroy the village but he can no longer control himself. That powerful voice takes over his consciousness until there is no room for him. The sheets are stuck to his skin when he opens his eyes. Before he can remember the nightmare he peels the sheets off and slaps his face. He runs to the fridge and drinks the last of his milk, adding the empty carton to the collection of others littering his small dining table. Today the class would break into teams of three. He reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out the headband that Iruka gave him. He wraps it around his forehead and ties it on the back of his sand-colored-hair covered head. He jumps out the window and dashes across the roof tops towards the Ninja academy. He lands on the top of an oak tree outside the school. Watching the parents dropping their kids off outside the academy, Naruto sighs and closes his eyes. He quickly collects negative thoughts and shoves them deep into a corner of his mind. He jumps from the tree and enters the school with a wide smile, ignoring the fact that the parents pull their kids away and whisper to each other as he passes by.

 _"Why is that beast here?"_

 _"Didn't he fail?"_

Naruto does his best to keep the smile in place as he runs to class.

He enters his class and sits next to Sakura at a long desk. Smiling so wide his eyes squint he says to her, "Hi Sakura! Looks like we both passed! I hope you're on my team" he fidgets with his headband and then notices a vein bulging on Sakura's forehead, _that's not cute at all…_ In the middle of this thought Sakura's fist smashes against his nose. A loud crack and severe throbbing pain in the middle of his face signals that his nose is broken. _Well at least she recognizes my existence._ Naruto holds his face and wipes away the blood dripping from his nose. Sasuke sits next to Naruto but Sakura shoves him to the floor so she can sit next to him. Sasuke stares forward ignoring them completely. As Naruto sits in the seat on the other side of Sakura he glares at Sasuke. _He thinks he's so great, Sakura and everybody else loves him and he just ignores them all. I'd give anything for people to respect me._

"Hello new Genins! Today you form your teams of 3 to be assigned to a jounin. Shikimaru…" (Naruto tunes out all the non-essential names). "…and last Kakashi's team 3 Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto." _Great, I have Sakura and Sasuke so she's going to be fawning all over him the whole time while I'm a third wheel._ "Once you get your waiver from up front, take it home to your parents to read and sign. Hand the forms in to academy's administrator before you meet with your new sensei and finally… Congratulations! You have all graduated to genins! Make the Hidden Leaf proud." Naruto hurries to the front to grab the papers and runs out. Iruka tries to say something but Naruto can't hear it as he rushes down the hall and back out to the tree with the wooden swing. He folds the papers four times and shoves them into his pocket. _I'm such a fool. It shouldn't bother me anymore to no have parents. Who wants them to tell me what to do all the time anyways? I can go screw around outside the village and not come back and no one would even notice!_ Naruto wipes away the tears that start to wet his lashes and laughs loudly to himself. He runs to find the kid that looks up to him, Konohamaru. He climbs the stairs to the Hokage's since the Hokage is his grandfather.

"Konohamaru! Where are you?!" Naruto shouts.

Something crashes behind his as he starts to ascend the winding stairs. He stops and turns around quickly to catch Konohamaru trying to hide inside a metal garbage bin.

"Ko-No-Ha-Ma-Ru! You suck at hiding." Naruto laughs, grateful for the jocund mood his friend's foolery has put him in.


End file.
